


How Someone Besides the Golden Trio Lost 100 Points for Gryffindor

by literaryladytype



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Bisexual George Weasley, Bisexual Ginny Weasley, F/F, Lesbian Luna Lovegood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:21:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22103998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literaryladytype/pseuds/literaryladytype
Summary: Ginny and Luna hunt down the giant squid.
Relationships: Fred Weasley & George Weasley & Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley
Comments: 6
Kudos: 34





	How Someone Besides the Golden Trio Lost 100 Points for Gryffindor

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger warning: anxiety attack, anxiety around coming out to family & friends & yourself, mention of homophobia, very brief violence & blood (there’s a punch and a nosebleed). 
> 
> Don’t pay attention to the timeline please, I think it’s their 4th year (Harry’s 5th) so they’re 14 or 15, but the timeline is not kind to this ship so... yep I’m just going to ignore it. 
> 
> (The Marie Kondo approach to Harry Potter is alive and well.)
> 
> (Also Tectumque is a very, very made up spell, and I'm not sure if patronus casting has anything to do with focus? Probably, right?)
> 
> Anyway, happy reading!

_ -5 points: talking in the library and insubordination  _

It started one morning, innocently enough, when Luna and Ginny were studying for their magical creatures exam in the library, nestled on a windowseat with their limbs brushing up against each other in ways that kept throwing Ginny off her guard.

"Er, okay, try this one."Ginny said, reading from a practice exam. "What is the name of the aquatic, non-dragon species that can grow up to ten feet, that is drawn to large sources of magic?"

"Allegedly drawn to large sources of magic." Luna said intensely, closing a light green leather bound book in her lap.

"Allegedly?"Ginny repeated confusedly, and eye contact was just… not a thing she was able to do right now. _Merlin’s pants._

"It's not like the giant squid is real," Luna said, like this was common knowledge. "There's no way they could exist in the same environment as the bibbering humdinger, which also is drawn to magic. They wouldn't be able to survive while competing in the same ecosystem."

"Wait, you believe in the _bibbering humdinger_ but you don't believe in the giant squid!"Ginny said, loudly.

"Weasley!"the librarian called. "Keep it down."

"Sorry!" Ginny called, her cheeks flushing furiously.

"Come on, even muggles believe in giant squid, and just last week a bunch of slytherin first years saw it from the common room! They've got a whole window into the lake, Lu."

"You know how Draco likes pranking-"Luna paused, her moon grey eyes flicking up at Ginny. Why was she _shaking_? "You called me Lu?"

Luna said the nickname softly, like it was something precious that could break at any moment.

Ginny went redder than the color of her hair.

"I- it - I didn't- it just came out."

"It's not like I didn't- oh, nevermind- I- it’s not-"Luna caught herself before she continued like this forever, which was strange.

She never had trouble tripping over her words when she had to talk to people, not like she’d seen Harry do. He was the king of ums and ers- how could you not be, when the people who you were raised by hated you, and the people who took you in had already decided what every detail of your life was going to look like, and then oh-so-calmly neglected to tell you any of it?

(That being said, people rarely talked to Luna.)

And Luna usually knew her place. She was loony Luna, and that might get her teased and she might end up feeling so isolated in the common room sometimes that she could hardly breathe, but with her reputation?

Or lack of it?

Well, it had let up miles and miles of space for her to say whatever the bloody hell she pleased.

But now there was Ginny, with her dedication to not giving a crap about what other people thought and well... She also just didn't know what to do with Ginny staring at her quite like _that._

And with her brain reminding her of the one article she’d read (and re-read, and cut out and then re-read again) in Witch Weekly about one of the members of The Weird Sisters coming out as a lesbian. All the words had felt so true, like the woman had taken some pieces of Luna’s universe and puzzle pieced them all together. She’d held that particular dam of feelings from bursting over several times over, and she knew somewhere, subconsciously, that it might not be able to stay that way for much longer.

"Draco," Luna continued, pushing down the butterflies in her stomach and barely remembering what her point had been- oh right, the squid, "likes pranking the first years all the time. And muggles believe in all sorts of strange things, like electricity and airplanes."

"Those are very, very real." Ginny said with a groan, remembering the millions of times that her dad had pulled her into his office to talk about all the strange things muggles had invented. ("What do you think could possibly make all the metal fly, Ginny!")

"I'm going to have to prove it to you, aren't I?" she half-declared with a fiery gleam in her eyes that made Luna’s heart shoot up like a rocket (this is so doomed, just so doomed, what in the sorceress’s name are you doing, this is your only friend-)

"Weasley! Lovegood!" The librarian said. "Kindly take your study date somewhere else."

They looked at each other at the word study date, moon against fire, locked in a finally voiced confusion. Luna felt like something was stuck in her throat.

"We aren't-" Ginny began, but the librarian cut her off.

"Now, please."she ordered.

“We were just studying!”Ginny protested.

“Minus 5 points for Gryffindor, Ginevra.”the librarian said sternly.

“I liked Weasley better.”Ginny mumbled. “Sounds like my mum.”

Luna gave her an apologetic smile without quite meeting her eyes and the girls shuffled out.

_ -55 points: breaking into another house’s common room, skipping assembly _

"How many rules are we breaking right now?" Luna asked, looking around the desolate slytherin common room. She’d always thought it was sort of beautiful, with the different hues of greens on all the furniture and the picture window that stretched so students could see the lake. Ginny looked like she was a spy in enemy territory. It was ridiculous. Cute- but ridiculous.

"Four?" Ginny responded. "At the very least."

Luna hummed, and Ginny wasn't sure if that meant she was uncomfortable or just curious.

It had taken more planning than Ginny had expected to figure this out- the whole proving to Luna _actual science_ thing.

They were going to have to find the actual squid for her plan to work, there was no way around that part.

First, there was the issue of the common room. The Slytherin common room was the only place that Ginny could think of that could work for them to see the squid, unless they wanted to stuff down some gillyweed and swim down there themselves, but the risk of her and Luna being ritually sacrificed by mermaids in that plan was way too high for Ginny's comfort.

But to get into the common room, Ginny had to know the password and not be seen by any Slytherins.

The first part was harder than the second, which was just waiting for a school assembly, one where all students were required to go, and then skipping it.

She'd started eavesdropping on Slytherins for a full week but she hadn't learned anything, until one day she saw the Slytherin prefect walk by with a gigantic nosebleed, cursing under his breath about red- heads.

And suddenly, she felt very dumb for not coming to that conclusion earlier.

She found Fred and George snickering off in a corner just one hall down.

“Ginny, d’you see Adrian Pucey’s face?”Fred called out, a group of Slytherins glaring at him as they walked to Charms. “Not going to be the best chaser Hogwarts has ever seen now, eh?” he said, mocking the Slytherin’s boasts from yesterday.

Ginny laughed a little, let her eyes grow wide and pretended to realize something.

"Pucey wasn't in the great hall at all today- he was studying for his NEWTS. The only way to do it was to get into the common room-how’d you do it?"

"We didn't-" started George.

"It was way too easy-"said Fred at the same time.

Ginny crossed her arms, staring at them both.

"If you tell me, I won't tell mum."

"You're a fourth year!" George complained. "What the hell could you possibly want in the Slytherin common room?"

"Could ask the same of you!" Ginny shot back.

"We at least know what we're doing!"George defended.

"You?! The boy who experiments with prank spells on himself and nearly blew up our house over the summer?"Ginny retorted.

"Yeah, because hanging around Loony Lovegood is doing such great things for your sanity!"

A moment of quick silence drew over them, and Ginny went into punch him, but Fred pulled her back.

"Whoa, calm down-"

"Get off of me!"Ginny said, twisting out of his grip and storming off.

Late that night in the Gryffindor common room Ginny sat curled up in one of the big maroon chairs, magical creatures book in hand. Her eyes kept skimming over the same paragraph, not taking in any of it.

Why did people have to make fun of Luna? She was funny if you got to know her, got to know the quirks on her mouth that meant that she was kidding or very subtly insulting something she didn’t like or kindly teasing you. And she _got_ her. They clicked, together. There was no need for rambling explanations or to constantly make sure she wasn’t being ignored by someone because she was a girl, or because she was the youngest or a Weasley or not the right type of girl-she just got it.

“Ginny,”George said, sitting on the chair across from her.

Ginny jumped.

“I’ve been sitting here for five minutes, Gin.”

“Good for you then,”she said, going back to the same paragraph.

She thought it might be about pygmy habitats, something about burrowing?

“I’m sorry,” he said, like it was an answer to a question being shoved down his throat.

“Really? Are you sure you’re not just here to call my only friend mental again?”

“Come on, she’s not your only friend.”

“According to you-”

“According to me two hours ago, you were going to go into the Slytherin common room for _who knows what_.”

“Who are you to talk? Besides, it wasn’t for anything like… It’s just Luna, she doesn’t believe in the giant squid, and I wanted to show her in that window they have.”

“That’s…” Ginny picked up her book again.

“Nevermind. Just seriously, Ginny, you’re going to risk a howler for what a few textbooks could’ve told her?”

“Oh, she’s seen the textbooks. She thinks the bibbering humdinger interferes with the ecosystem and wouldn’t make it possible for them to survive.”

“And you’re smiling because?”

“You’re sounding like Percy.”

“None of this is really an answer, mate,” he says, sounding surprisingly sincere.

“I don’t know. We’re just really, really good friends. And she’s so…. she’s just actually really amazing, so much that… I don’t know, I just want to talk to her about everything and I _need_ to prove this to her, I don’t know why.”

His expression was practically unreadable, but he took a deep breath before saying the next thing.

“Do you remember the year when I wouldn’t stop talking about Oliver Wood? I would go to basically every practice even the the extra ones really just to talk to him until I sprained my ankle?"

Ginny smiled.

“Yep, that was ridiculous.” George blushed. “Not… not the point.”

“You wanted Mum to sew him a Christmas sweater, very much the point.”

“Hush, you.” He took another breath, uncharacteristically nervous.

“I liked him, Ginny.”

“Yes, George, I know.”

“No, you don’t. I mean I liked liked him. I had… I had a crush on him.”

Ginny’s universe shifts a little to the right.

“But you’re not… you’re dating Angelica, aren’t you?”

“I’m bisexual. I’m attracted to multiple genders.”

“Oh.”

Ginny’s universe turns upside down and starts doing cartwheels.

“I didn’t know that was something people could be.”

George cracks a bittersweet smile, which is a look she doesn't think she's ever seen on her brother before.

“Yeah, well…”

“Does anyone else know?”

“No, Gin,” he says quietly, “no one really knows.”

“Not even Fred?”

“Yeah, no, not even Fred, okay?” he says, a bit frantically. “I don’t have to tell him everything!”

“Alright, alright,”Ginny said, like she was trying to gentle a horse.

A silence hung between them.

“But why… why would you tell me first?”

“I don’t know, okay?” he says, combing an anxious hand through his hair. “I thought you… it’s stupid. I can’t believe I- I’m just, I’m going to go, it’s fine, don’t- don’t tell anyone, okay?”

“I won’t, but why-”

“Just pretend it never happened or something!”

“I don’t want to!” she said.

“Well, as it’s my coming out, I don’t see why you can’t try, there’ve been greater denials in Hogwarts history, you know the amount of times this school could’ve been sued for, for child endangerment is just, just really striking…” he stopped, like a measuring tape let go of too quickly, and reeling back up at breakneck speed, just one terrible clamor circling back.

George’s eyes were wide, and he sat down on the sofa. It was unsettling to see him like this, where none of his jokes were coming for him and he was just-

He was just nineteen, and terrified his entire life would be uprooted for him for liking boys.

And goddamnit, he was shaking.

“Hey. Take a breath, okay.”

“ Just one deep breath.”

“Yeah, that’s good.”

“In and out.”

“In.”

“Out.”

“In.”

“Out.”

He looked a bit less faded, and wrapped her in a hug.

They stayed like that for a while, until he whispered a word in her ear.

“Nathair.”

“What?”

“Nathair, it’s the Slytherin password. Best of luck.”

Ginny resisted a victory dance.

“George, you know I love you, right?”

“Eh, figured it might be something like that.”

She made a face at him, and they disentangled.

“I’m sorry if I was pressuring you to come out to Fred. It’s not my decision, I shouldn’t have said it.”

“It’s okay, he said, taking a breath. “I know I freaked, but it wasn’t you, really. I feel like I’ve been stockpiling everything in my head and it probably would’ve come out either way. Sorry. It was a lot for me to dump on you.”

“It’s okay. Thanks for telling me.”

“Thanks for not… y’know, being homophobic.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that?”

“Yeah, I guess I probably shouldn’t.”

“Are you okay?”

He let out a laugh.

“No, I’m pretty sure I’m in shock. Don’t look at me like that, it’s fine, I’ll get over it.”

“Get some sleep, mate.”

“Ginny?”

“What?”

“I love you too.”

_-40 points: intentional disruption of a magical creature_

"So now what?"Luna asked, not unkindly.

"We cast as many spells as we can, and we try to see if the squid comes looking through the window."

A small look of frustration flitted over Luna's face.

"If you do this, I promise I'll go Nargle hunting with you." Ginny said, completely serious.

"Really?"she replied, starry eyed.

"Yeah." Ginny said, struggling to keep her smile from swallowing her face.

Luna pointed her wand at a teacup.

" _Avifors_!" she said, and after a flash of blue light, a sparrow replaced it.

"That's the first thing you thought of?"Ginny laughed.

"Well, what were you planning to do?"Luna said, and it wasn't a challenge, but that didn't stop Ginny from taking it as one.

" _Expecto Patronum_ ,"Ginny said, closing her eyes as shiny, silvery wisps extended from the tip of her wand.

Luna watched as Ginny’s horse floated in mesmerizing circles around the pair. The crow tried to nab at the shiny stuff, but the beak went through, again and again until it tried to fly at Ginny.

" _Tectumque!_ " Luna shouted impulsively, and a circle of white light in interlocking patterns formed a shield around the other girl, sending the bird crashing down.

Ginny's eyes flew open, breaking her concentration and making her patronus disappear.

"What- Luna-"

Luna undid the spell.

"The bird- it's a crow, they like shiny stuff- it was trying to catch your patronus, but it was going to fly in your face and I-"

"Cast one of the strongest shield spells in the world?" Ginny said, smiling at her.

Luna looked down at the bird in her arms.

"It's wing is broken." She tried to cast a healing spell, but her hands shook too much.

"Hey."Ginny said, grabbing her hand. "It's okay."

" _Reparo._ "Ginny said softly, with a flick of her wand, and the bird flew quickly off.

"What happened, is everything okay?"Ginny asked.

Luna sank into one of the overstuffed green couches, grabbing on to a pillow like she was hoping it could cover some shred of her embarassment.

"Did the bird hurt you? Am I going to have to add it to the list of birds I need to fight?"

"You have a list?"Luna asked quietly as Ginny counted them off with her fingers, sitting down with her.

"Errol, Literally every single one of those school owls I had to use when I didn't have an owl, Buckbeak when he almost tried to claw my arm off, The sparrow that always crashes into McGonagall's window... it goes on."

"And here I thought you were more focused on the care and keeping part of magical creatures than the threatening and killing" Luna joked half heartedly.

"Yeah, well, don't tell Hagrid about it,"Ginny quipped. ”But seriously, is everything alright?”

"I suppose. I'm not sure why I did that,"she said quietly.

"I would've done the same,"Ginny replies, not quite meeting her eyes as she faces the window into the lake.

"Truthfully?" Luna says, just to- because this really doesn't feel like a reality. To have Ginny sitting here, her usually fierce eyes turned loyal and perhaps half afraid, even, gleaming under the lamp light, telling her she would've shielded her. 

"Of course,"she says, looking back at Luna, who has a particularly unreadable expression on her face. There's a lock of Lu's hair on her face, undone from her ponytail that Ginny's hand is itching to tuck back behind her ear. 

Ginny doesn't know how, but she knows if the roles were reversed they would be having the same conversation.

They sit close together, like in the library, and their hands are almost touching.

Ginny finally realizes the butterflies that were in her stomach, finally realizes what that nagging feeling meant that kept Luna in her brain all the time, that made her plan all of this, cast a patronus just to impress a girl, try to prove the existence of a giant squid, and keep holding onto the word _bisexual_ like a blanket, or like a particularly good but complicated section of a book that she'd come back to late at night, to puzzle over when she couldn't go to sleep. 

Ginny made a decision, wrapped in adrenaline, which was maybe less of a decision and more of a gamble, and less of a gamble than an impulse and-

"Can I kiss you?"  
  
Luna's eyes widened, and her heart wouldn't stop pounding, and the only thought in her head was _what_ and then _did someone hex this girl_ and _WHAT_ and-

And suddenly there was a more pressing matter at hand.

“Look out the window!” Luna said, jumping back.

"What?"

Ginny turned and stared at the huge tendril creeping out from under the overgrown seaweed, rusty red with orange dots.

Horrible, terrible timing, but... she'd really done it. _They'd really done it._

“Merlin’s beard…” Luna said. "Ginny, it's beautiful." 

Ginny's victorious reverie came crashing down as she realized what she'd just asked. Luna turned to her to see the confusion and worry filling her face.

“Oh. No," Luna said to Ginny.”I’m so sorry, I’m- I- yes, that would be lovely, um..."

Luna leaned forward, with Ginny closing the gap.

And Luna and Ginny kissing in front of the giant squid in the Slytherin common room as a crow (that used to be a teacup) pecked at the ground by their feet wasn’t the weirdest thing McGonagall had ever seen, but it did get 100 overall points deducted for Gryffindor, and 85 points deducted for Ravenclaw.


End file.
